


No Girls Allowed

by Kairi_Yajuu



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Gen, KageHina - Freeform, Transphobia, Tsukiyama - Freeform, background ships that I'll add as I go, canon timeline up to the end of season three of the anime after-which it's its own timeline, it exists and it hurts to write but I live for the drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:27:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21843670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kairi_Yajuu/pseuds/Kairi_Yajuu
Summary: In Karasuno High School, after the big match between their volleyball team and Shiratorizawa Academy's, a new club member is added by what seems to be force by the Vice Principal. The boys don't mind too much and neither do the coach, the managers nor the adviser but all the same these mysterious "circumstances" the forces that be keep whispering about seem to interest the team.Namae Yuki is a transfer student with zero experience in a real volleyball team but he claims he can play any position and play it well.Could this be the key to winning nationals?Only Coach Ukai can decide that for sure.And seriously - what are these 'circumstances' that force this player on their team?
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I swear one day I'll finish a mutli-chapter fic! This one isn't being planned to be as intense or long as some of my other ideas. This is more slice-of-life-y and since I don't watch actual real volleyball you'll probably notice that I'll tend to skip over the games. This is more about building relationships and talking about a certain point that I like to talk about.
> 
> Anyways! No spoilers! Please enjoy!

The teacher smiled and nodded. Ittetsu Takeda was surprised by the circumstances but decided to agree on letting the new student onto the team. He seemed to pass all the physical exams necessary for volleyball, even doing better than their shortest member in some aspects and Takeda knew the coach well enough to know that at the end of the day, that's all that would matter to him, too.

Well, at the end of the day, Takeda wouldn’t turn anybody away. He just let everyone on and trusted Ukai and Daichi’s judgment on who would do best on the court.

The new student was just a first year without showing any signs of being especially skilled in any areas and he was shorter than Nishinoya at 158 centimeters. So for now, they’ll probably be stuck on the bench. But who knew? Maybe they’d surprise everyone.

Takeda took note of the short hair that went above his ears and seem to slant upwards from the back. He wore the typical button-up male uniform that everyone wore but something was off about it. Like it didn’t quite fit him. It was tight in some areas, fit perfectly in some areas and in others it was loose.

Takeda was thinking too much.

He jumped up when he realized they were waiting on him. “Ah - right. There’s no problems with me on letting him in. You said your name was “Yuki” right? That’s a pretty n- er - pretty cool name. Hah.” He was just as nervous as ever.

He couldn’t help it. This whole situation was new to him. He only hoped he could keep Yuki’s secret from the rest of the team as per his request.

~!~

Once they were both in the gym with the rest of the team, Takeda clapped his hands loudly to get the boys’ attention. The managers weren’t here yet which made Takeda twitch a little. They were usually here so he wasn’t sure what was taking them so long but no matter. All it was was a new member to the team that was required-to-be-allowed-to-join-due-to-circumstances-beyond-Takedas-allowance-to-explain. No big deal.

“Everyone, I have someone to introduce you to.” He turned his head and smiled at Yuki. “This is Namae Yuki. He’ll be our newest member.”

Takeda could feel Ukai’s glare on the back of his head. He twitched again. Of course it wouldn’t be easy. Nothing was ever easy with Ukai as coach.

He cleared his throat. “Yuki, why don’t you say something to the rest of the team? Introduce yourself.”

“Um. Right.” The small boy nodded. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath as he stood by Takeda before letting the air slowly escape him while opening his eyes again. “I’m just here to play volleyball and I don’t really care about who wants to get in my way. If you won’t let me play because you think I’m not good enough, then I’ll fight harder than everyone else to prove that I am.” He bowed. “Thank you for having me.”

There was silence and Takeda was inwardly screaming. Such a bold declaration from a first year transfer student who had no previous experience on any sort of team. Sure, Hinata was inexperienced as well, but his delusions of grandeur didn’t go un-challenged, either.

Tanaka was the first to speak. “Hey, you’re sort of pissing me off.”

Before Yuki could respond, which, with the blank expression he was sporting, probably would’ve agitated Tanaka further, Hinata jumped forward with his eyes shining.

“Hey! You’re shorter than me! And Nishinoya! What’s your height exactly?”

“Oh - I’m 158 centimeters.”

“Wow! Are you still growing or something? Cause that’s really really short! You’re as short as a girl! You must be able to jump really high like me then if you think you ca-”

Hinata was interrupted when Kageyama grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him back. “Lay off of him. You were able to prove yourself despite not having any technique. Give him a chance, too.” While what he said was nice enough, the glare he gave to Yuki made the whole room freeze. “What position do you play?”

“All of them.”

Once again, the room froze. Takeda felt his heart stop. This was too much. He felt like he was gonna pass out. If the group kept interrogating Yuki and getting answers that irritated them, this experiment of the vice principals would be over in a second.

“What?” Kageyama was the only one to respond which was probably for the best considering he was the one who started it.

Though Ukai came in with an interruption. “What position did you play on your last team?”

“Oh, I didn’t have a team before this one.” Yuki smiled, his eyes shining. “That’s why I’m so excited to be here. I’ve never been in an actual volleyball game. Just rallying balls and practices spiking.” He brought a hand to his chin as he looked down in concentrated thought. “And I would practice tossing to friends. Though they were never able to hit them.” Yuki laughed and brought his hands to his hips. “I guess all my friends just sucked!”

Ukai nodded and crossed his arms. “So you can play none of the positions.”

Yuki twitched and glared, making fists with his hands. “Hey! I told you, I can play all of them! I’ve practiced all of them since Elementary school!”

“You would have been better practicing a specialty. Like Nishinoya with receives makes him our libero, Asahi with spikes makes him our ace, Kageyama and Sugawara with tosses make them our setters, Yamaguchi with serves making him our pinch server and so on and so forth.”

“What about me?” Hinata called out as he turned to Ukai. Takeda had noticed he was being quiet. Ever since Yuki talked of his practices, Hinata seemed to be lost in thought. But not anymore. Now he was back in character.

Ukai looked to him and answered without a second thought. “Your raw athletic ability with no technique makes you our freak-of-nature loose canon.”

Hinata seemed to not like that answer. He started to whine and before anyone knew it, Kageyama and him were at each other's throats again.

Takeda laughed nervously. This was typical of them. Good. Everything was relatively normal which meant the team didn’t have any actual objections to letting Yuki on the team. On the court, on the other hand…

“Let me play.” Everyone turned attention back to Yuki whose glare rivaled Hinata’s. “I’ll show you what I can do. I’ll be your all around pinch-player. Anytime someone’s out for the count, call me in and I’ll play.”

Ukai stared right back for a few seconds before scratching his head and sighing. “Man this is such a pain.” He narrowed his eyes and put his hand down. “Alright. I’ll give you a shot but if you don’t show me anything special, I’m putting you on the bench for the rest of the year. You will be the last player on the court. You're coming in really late and every game from here on needs to be our best. We can't afford anymore experimentation with players unless we're certain we can hit our opponents where it matters most.”

Yuki’s fists clenched at his side and his glare didn’t let up. “Deal.”

Ukai and Yuki stayed glaring at one another. ‘Damn’, Takeda thought to himself, ‘They'll never get along if Yuki doesn't start showing respect. And if they can't, then the vice principal really will be upset.’

Takeda’s brain worked a million miles a minute trying to think of what to say to calm this situation but instead he just sighed and gave in. “Yuki, as long as you don’t go complaining to administration about Ukai if you lose this, I’ll allow it.”

Yuki blinked out of his glare and turned to Takeda. “I never back out of deals and I always keep my promises.” He smiled and gave a wink and a thumbs up. “You can count on me.” Somehow, Takeda wasn’t convinced. But he smiled and accepted it anyways.

~!~

Time passed as they decided who would play in the three-on-three match. During that time, Kiyoko and Yachi had finally arrived in the gym. Evidently, there was a meeting between club managers that Takeda had forgotten about. Luckily, he had no reason to be present. He and Daichi explained the situation to the two girls and while Yachi seemed concerned about the new boy on the team, Kiyoko and her accepted the deal. ‘As if they could stop it’ Takeda kept to himself.

To be nice, Ukai gave Nishinoya and Sugawara to Yuki for this match. But, on the same token, with the excuse of just wanting to challenge him to give him ample opportunity to ‘show off’ he put Tsukishima, Kageyama and Hinata on the other side.

So, a team that could make the best out of the first years come to the surface versus the extremely talented first years themselves. Takeda swallowed nervously. This was going to be interesting.

Takeda sat on the bench next to Ukai and as the players finished setting up the court, the teacher thought of something and turned to the coach. “Wait, I know Sugawara can spike now and Nishinoya can give tosses in that case, but isn’t that set up still a little strange?”

Ukai let out a grunt, clearly still upset by Yuki’s claims. “He said he could play every role so let’s give him a chance to play every role.”

Takeda’s tension refused to relax. He turned to the teams to see them ready to start and staring at him as if waiting for something. He looked to Ukai for help but he was busy staring at Yuki. Studying him as if he could sense something was off. Yeah, Takeda’s heart wasn’t going to beat normally for awhile yet.

He turned back to the teams before shouting out. “Have a good and fair game out there boys!” they all smiled and nodded as if that’s what they were waiting for. And with that and the first whistle, Yuki was the first to serve. He seemed pretty powerful but it went straight for the net.

Ukai smirked and Takeda jumped in his seat. This was not going to be good.

Rally after rally happened and eventually, too quickly for comfort, the first set was over. Kageyama, Tsukishima and Hinata took it easily without doing anything particularly special.

Takeda walked over to try and talk to Yuki but he stood up and rushed to the restroom before the teacher could say anything of comfort. Sugawara sighed and looked to Takeda. “He won’t listen to me. He says his strategies will work best but he won’t accept that I know those three better than him.”

“And he keeps stealing receives from me. When the ball is clearly on my side of the court, he’s running for it and snatching it up. When he does that, the ball goes anywhere but somewhere helpful.” Nishinoya continued.

So Takeda sighed as he replied. “So essentially, not a team player.”

Sugawara nodded. “Worse than when Kageyama first got here. He’s set on proving he can do something awesome but he’s not really doing anything to help us score points.”

Takeda continued to nod and when Yuki came running he ran out of the gym. “I’ll be right back!” Everyone stared with confusion and thought they had a chance to ask when Yuki came back with his bag but he was running to the bathroom again.

Takeda could put two and two together but he wasn’t going to say anything. He just blushed slightly and glanced away. Something he knew Sugawara noticed and was thankful he said nothing on.

Instead of being asked what he knew, Kageyama, Hinata and Tsukishima walked up with Kageyama speaking his theories. “Do you think he crapped his pants and needs to change?”

Hinata tensed and turned a glare to his teammate. “Don’t be so vulgar! Say ‘pooped!’”

“I’ll say what I want!”

“I think she just had an emergency.” Takeda eyed Tsukishima at that one but when no one else commented on the slip their tallest first year made, he decided to let it go.

Yuki came back glaring dangerously while walking over to the bench to drop his bag. “Alright Coach.” he nodded and walked back to his new side of the court without sparing a glance to Ukai. Ukai shrugged and told everyone to get back in their places and once they were all settled, he whistled, signaling Yuki’s turn to serve.

This time, amazingly, there was a no-touch point. The serve went straight past everyone. It wasn’t as strong as Oikawa’s but it looked like it had the potential of reaching that point if it was given an opportunity to really grow and flourish. Yuki jumped up in excitement.

“Yes! I told you I was a great server!” Yuki cheered. Nishinoya gave Yuki a grin and a thumbs up while Sugawara made an ‘ok’ sign with his fingers as he winked.

“Good job, Yuki. Keep that up for as long as you can. But don’t forget to let us hit some points, too, okay?” Sugawara said.

Yuki nodded but didn’t seem to really be listening. When Ukai whistled again, Takeda noticed he looked annoyed as he didn’t move from his spot on the bench. He also noticed that he himself had jumped up when Yuki scored his team that point. It wasn’t the first no-touch serve that he won. He was actually pretty good at serving. Maybe a future pinch server for when Yamaguchi couldn’t do it? Would that be enough to give Yuki a fair chance on the court in the future?

Takeda slowly found his seat after Ukai patted the spot next to him.

Ukai spoke before Takeda could, even as he watched the next rally carefully. “You think that was enough to impress me, don’t you?”

Takeda frowned. “Not impress, per se. More like ‘satiate’? I believe that’s the right word.”

Ukai grunted. “Not quite. Asahi can hit no-touch serves just fine. That’s no reason to use Yuki instead of Yamaguchi as a pinch-server. And his tosses, quite frankly, are terrible. He can’t seem to work well with his team at all, let alone set them up for a spike. So replacing Sugawara and Kageyama is out.”

Just then, Yuki received one of Hinata and Kageyama’s quicks like it was nothing. Takeda smiled big and looked to Ukai excitedly. Silently waiting to see his response.

The stubborn coach sighed and Takeda felt himself huff before Ukai could even say what he wanted. “His receives have been libero worthy but not at the level of Nishinoya. Still not a reason to put him on the court at all during the rest of the year.”

Takeda groaned and looked down. He couldn’t stand to watch anymore. The opposite team was already way ahead. There wasn’t enough time for Yuki to do something crazy enough to actually impress Ukai.

And sure enough, as time passed, the second set was over and Kageyama, Tsukishima and Hinata had won.

Yuki fell to his knees and stared in disbelief. Hinata and Kageyama high-fived and Hinata began cheerfully exclaiming how awesome all those great spikes felt and how even the ones that were received by Yuki felt good!

Takeda came over to kneel down and pat Yuki on the back. “It's okay. I'm sure with practice you'll find your specialty.”

Yuki looked up to Takeda with tears in his eyes. “But that was supposed to be my specialty! I was going to be a one man team!”

“That's not possible” Ennoshita responded. “Everyone on the team is important and making sure those that are on the court can work together is the most important.”

“At any rate,” Ukai spoke up, walking towards them with a hand in his pocket. “A deal’s a deal. You didn't do anything exciting like you promised. Everything you did was lukewarm, just like I told you it would be.”

Tsukishima decided just then to say something against his usual character. “You should have expected this. You'd be better suited on the girls team.”

Yamaguchi’s eyebrows creased “Tsuki, doesn't that seem a little harsh?”

Tsukishima smirked. “It's the truth. She - oh I'm sorry - He has a short stature, a small waist, large hips everything about him screams “girl” so - “

“I'm not a girl!” Yuki stood up with fists clenched. He looked like he was about to physically fight Tsukishima.

Takeda’s eyes grew wide at the realization and stepped forward to get between them. “Hey - whoa - we don't need any of that. Let's just all settle down and -”

“Prove it.” Once again, for the, what, third time this practice?, the room froze.

But as everyone unfroze and began to berate Tsuki, Yuki remained frozen.

Takeda frowned and stood next to the boy, whispering calmly to him. “Don't worry. I won't let him make you do anything.”

“But he won't stop.” Yuki whispered back. “I need to do something about it.”

Takeda sighed. Yuki really was a strong-willed teenager. It would be fine to just show his ID but the principle of the matter was what mattered. Yuki shouldn’t have to ‘prove’ his gender to anyone.

Ukai clapped his hands. “Hey. Enough of that. We’re leaving early today. Yuki, you stay behind after everything is put up. For now, sit on the bench and cool off.” Yuki started to glare at Ukai but quickly looked away before his coach could notice.

But Takeda noticed.

Everyone was whispering to each other but Takeda wanted to stand by Yuki’s side for now so he couldn't hear what the whispering was about. Even if the - admittedly very feminine - boy preferred to stay quiet at the moment, Takeda would stand by him.

Once everyone was gone and a select few (Hinata, Nishinoya and Asahi to be specific) said a cheerful goodbye to Yuki, Ukai walked over to the teacher and the student.

Ukai put his hands on his hips and let out a long sigh.

“What's your deal?”

Yuki finally looked up. “Huh?”

“You insecure about your masculinity?”

Yuki tensed and looked down before nodding slowly.

Takeda’s eyes grew wide. That was unusually honest for someone of his circumstance.

Ukai groaned. “Tsukishima figured that out rather quickly.” He smiled. “Don't mind him. He just likes getting under everyone's skin. It's a little late now but not showing what you’re insecure about to him would've been better for you.”

Yuki nodded silently again, still staring at the floor.

Takeda really wanted to tell Ukai the truth. Felt like the coach should know the same things the adviser does about the team, but he was all but under oath to not reveal a thing.

So he forced a smile and patted Yuki on the back as if he were one of the guys, cause that’s what Takeda knew Yuki wanted. “Go ahead and go get changed and head home. We’ll talk more tomorrow at practice.” He leaned in to whisper to Yuki “and I’ll make sure you get to practice even if you’re not in matches.” he smiled when Yuki looked at him with a grin of his own.

And with that, Takeda was alone with Ukai. And Takeda was regretting being put in that position as he felt a dangerous aura being pointed at him. “U-um…” he stuttered as he turned towards the younger yet significantly taller man. “You’re upset.”

“You think?” Ukai was glaring daggers just like Takeda had sensed from him. The teacher swallowed and then bowed apologetically to the coach.

“I’m sorry! I can’t tell you everything but just know this was only partially my decision! There’s certain circumstances stating that Yuki has to at least be listed on the roster so please let him stay!”

Ukai continued to glare before finally relaxing. “Alright, alright, jeez. I’ll take your word for it. But just know that I’m going to get to the bottom of this eventually.”

Takeda stood up straighter and smiled before nodding. “Okay!”

~!~

As the boys walked down the street with their pork-buns in hand and mouth, Hinata ran ahead before turning around towards the group and stopping right in front of them. He grinned as everyone stared at him with confusion.

“What?” Kageyama questioned. “You want more food?”

Hinata shook his head and it was revealed that his eyes were shining.

Kageyama raised an eyebrow. He would’ve questioned further if his brain didn’t short-circuit from how cute it was. But he wouldn’t admit that.

When everyone stayed quiet for once, waiting patiently for once, Hinata paused to think of how to word what he was gonna say next. For once. “I think…” he began “I think I like him.”

Kageyama glared a million daggers of death in Hinata’s general direction but when the orange head first year began to freak out and demand an explanation for the glares, Tobio said nothing.

He did relax when Sugawara spoke up and inadvertently calmed his worries with a simple statement. “You think he’s going to be fun to practice with.”

“Yeah!” Hinata exclaimed. “The way he looked at the ball was like ‘whoa!’ and when he would receive it it was like ‘whoosh!’”

“Use real words when you speak, idiot!” Kageyama interrupted. He was honestly getting more and more ticked the longer this conversation went on.

Hinata argued something back but Kageyama was interrupted by Sugawara again. “He reminds me a lot of you, Shoyo. I’m sure if we find what he’s good at and help him perfect it, he’ll be a great team member.”

Tanaka gave a pointed grin towards Nishinoya. “Yeah. Those receives really were like ‘whoosh’. I’ll bet he’ll surpass our current libero in no-time if we let him.”

“What was that?!” Nishinoya exclaimed as he jumped up to get into Tanaka’s face.

They glared at each other for a few seconds before breaking out into laughter. Nishinoya and Tanaka always had a special sort of bond that a little teasing couldn’t break. Of course, they all had that bond.

Come to think of it… Kageyama looked in the direction Tsukishima and Yamaguchi walked off in as they talked about who-knew-what on their way home. He couldn’t help but wonder if Tsuki antagonized Yuki like that because he had already accepted Yuki as part of the team, or if perhaps it was because he was testing to see if Yuki could handle being a part of the team in the first place.

Either way, it was hard to read Tsuki at all, but they all knew better than anyone that he was nothing if not calculated.

So Kageyama took his final bite of his pork-bun and began silently walking down the road, forcing back a smile when Hinata chased him down and started pestering him about how he didn’t give him enough tosses in the game.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited the tags to make them less chaotic and more accurate. So yeah, check those out if you haven't cause there's an important one in that mix.
> 
> For the record, the transphobia tag applies to two characters in this story with one being accidental and one being the more triggering side of things. That's all I can say without spoiling it any more, though. I hope that doesn't make anyone want to stop reading!

Ukai let out an annoyed sigh.

That new student - what was his name again? - was waiting outside of the gym before anyone else had the chance to arrive. How did he do that?

“Did you skip class?”

The kid jumped up from sitting against the edge of the building, hiding the book he was reading behind him. “N-No! Of course not! I got permission from my teacher to be here!”

Ukai was going to remember to ask who that teacher was later but for now he just sighed once more and opened the door to the gym.

“Alright. Since you’re here early you can start stretches and then when you’re done with that help me set up the court.”

The newest member nodded and ran to his self-proclaimed spot before working on his stretches.

Ukai didn’t want to admit it because it seemed rather rude, but he couldn’t help but notice that Tsukishima had a point. The new kid really did have feminine features. More than one, too. Hinata had a baby face and was short but his build was still overall manly enough. This kid though… Ukai wanted to ask him what he ate when he was younger but decided it wasn’t worth the trouble that would cause.

So for now, he let it go. After all, he’s still a first year, puberty might be kind to him.

As he began to set up he found himself lost in thought. Mainly considering what he was going to do to get back at Takeda for all this mess. He’d tell him to take him out and buy him some food but he knew the teacher would just take that as an excuse to drink.

He was out of ideas in that case.

“Sir?”

Ukai flinched at the surprise interruption from his thoughts before turning to the newest and shortest team member. “Yeah?”

“I’m done stretching.”

Ukai nodded and told him to help with the court.

Just as they finished, Tsukishima and Yamaguchi walked in.

Tsukishima smirked and said in a loud voice that was not really meant for only Yamaguchi even if the wording tried to play it off as such “Oh, looks like the girls team is meeting here today. Guess we’ll have to miss practice.”

Ukai called out before the boy in question could bite back at that comment “Nice try getting out of practice, Tsuki. Get in here, do your stretches, and then give me ten serves for that comment.”

Tsuki clicked his tongue against his teeth before walking over to his own self-designated spot to stretch.

Ukai turned to the smallest one in the room. “Hey - uh -” oh crap he really couldn’t remember his name. “Kid, why don’t you go talk to Yamaguchi or something while we wait on everyone else?”

“You don’t remember my name, do you?”

The coach tensed. Smart little…

“It’s Yuki.”

He sighed. “Alright. Yuki. Go read your book or talk to your teammates. Just entertain yourself anyway you can.”

He smiled. “With all due respect, sir” ‘oh yeah like you want to give me that’ “I think I’ll work on those ten serves you told Tsukishima to do.”

Ukai raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?” and then he grinned. Maybe this kid wasn’t totally hopeless. Maybe he was serious about proving to be worthy of the court. “Alright. You know where the balls are? Go grab a set and get started. Make sure to face away from where people will be stretching.”

Yuki nodded along with the instructions and then gave a salute. To which Ukai just blinked and in the heat of the moment, gave his own mock salute in response.

What came next surprised Ukai to no end.

Yuki giggled. An actual, honest to goodness, girly giggle.

What?

Yuki didn’t seem to notice anything strange as he jogged over to where the balls were kept. Ukai shook his head. So what? All kinds of people have all kinds of laughs. That shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Takeda’s laugh wasn’t the most masculine thing in the world, either.

But it wasn’t a giggle.

He turned a raised eyebrow towards the room Yuki disappeared into before shaking his head and walking over to Tsukishima and Yamaguchi who were just about finished with their stretches.

Tsuki seemed to sense Ukai’s presence as he looked up at him with a confused look of his own.

“Go easy on the new kid, Tsuki. Something tells me he’s more sensitive than the average person.”

Tsuki went back to stretching. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I ever say is the truth.”

Ukai sighed before turning his attention to Yuki who -

\- hit a ball directly into Ukai’s face.

The coach took a few steps back, brought a hand to said face and felt his eyes twitch in annoyance and frustration.

He looked up to see Yuki with his hands covering his mouth in surprise. Oh no. He was not getting away with this. “Yuki! I told you to face AWAY from where they’re stretching!”

Yuki bowed once. Twice. Three times. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t hear that part! I just focused so much on you telling me to practice that I didn’t pay attention to the rest!”

Ukai groaned and brought his hand down. He could feel it already. This kid was going to be the death of him.

Tsuki let out a small laugh. “Guess it’s true that a certain type of person does more talking than listening.”

To which Yuki glared. “What do you mean ‘a certain type of person’?”

“Ah - blood types of course.”

That was obviously not what he meant. Anyone could tell that was another jab at Yuki’s feminine physique along with the rather tired stereotype that women talked a lot.

Just then Hinata and Kageyama came running in as if they were racing. Like always. And like always, they were arguing about who won.

Ukai let out a groan and rubbed his temples. He took it back. This whole TEAM was going to be the death of him.

There was a saving grace to it all and it had just walked in. Takeda followed the captain in with a smile. “Hello Coach. I see you were able to let Yuki in.”

“Yeah but Yuki got here earlier than me so - wait what?”

Takeda tilted his head to the side in confusion. “What do you mean ‘what’? I sent him here early because I knew he would need the extra practice as soon as he could get it.”

“Wait - what?” Ukai blinked a couple times and stared in an even more confused state. “You’re - you’re his teacher?”

Takeda smiled as if he were enjoying Ukai’s confusion. “Yeah. He’s in my class for Japanese Literature. Took a placement test and made it in with flying colors.”

Hinata was once again impressed with another member of the team. “Whoa - Yuki - you’re smart?”

Yuki seemed nervous for a second before smiling and puffing up his chest with a nod. “Yup! Grew up as smartest in my class every grade - um - until… my second-to-last year of middle school, though.”

Ukai noticed the mood change and looked to Takeda for help but got nothing beyond a shrug and a sad look directed at Yuki. As if there really was more to that story than just a slipping grade.

“At any rate,” Ukai began, “we have practice so start stretching. And Tsukishima - “ he turned around to see Tsuki already doing his serves. Good. “Nevermind. Yuki.”

There was that salute again. Ukai sighed. Yuki was going to be doing that a lot, wasn’t he?

“Go talk to your teammates while they stretch. Get to know them better.”

Takeda’s beaming smile wasn’t lost on Ukai. And he’d be lying if he said it didn’t feel good to him to see that. Yeah, he could be smart with kids, too. He might not know Yuki’s entire situation, but he knew the kid needed friends and forcing him to just sit and talk with the group would be better for the team morale overall.

Yuki seemed to be ready to protest that but Hinata started pushing him from behind towards their made up stretching area.

“Coach’s orders are the coach’s orders!” the bubbly middle-blocker stated.

While the team continued to file in, Ukai grabbed some water from the bench and took a drink before turning to Takeda. “Hey.” he waved him over and once he was close enough, leaned in to whisper. “You seriously can’t tell me what the deal with that kid is? I thought maybe he had a special deal to help with bonus points in a class or something, but if he’s in your class…”

Takeda slapped his hands together, shut his eyes and bowed his head. “I’m sorry. I really can’t tell you anything.” He blinked at a thought and then smiled. “Oh, but I talked to the vice principal and if you manage to figure it out, I’m allowed to tell you under the promise that you’ll keep it a secret.”

“What? I need to figure it out?”

Takeda nodded. “Yup!” He set a hand on Ukai’s shoulder, gave a thumbs up and winked as he said “Good luck, Coach!”

Ukai groaned. That’s not what he needed to hear. Not at all.

~!~

Yamaguchi paused in his practices to watch Yuki’s spike get stopped by Tsukishima once again.

Yuki was clearly getting frustrated.

And Tsuki was enjoying himself, in his own way.

Tsukishima wasn’t as excited as when he blocked Ushijima’s spike at the tournament but he was still smirking that confident smirk of his and saying ‘thank you’ to Yuki’s insults. Like now when Yuki called Tsuki ‘insufferable’ and his response was a smile and a polite bow while saying ‘thanks for the compliment’.

Yamaguchi smiled even as Yuki began throwing a fit.

Daichi had convinced Yuki, somehow, to focus on spiking the balls for right now and that tomorrow he could practice receives with Nishinoya and then rotate back and forth between those two skills.

Especially since Yuki wasn’t going to be the team setter anytime soon.

He was upset by that at first but Ukai told him that if he could manage finding a specialty before nationals, then he might allow him on the court for a practice match.

Key word being ‘might’.

Yamaguchi sighed and was about to return to practicing his serves but was stopped when Ukai whistled and called for everyone to take a break.

As they sat around together drinking water, Yamaguchi noticed Hinata and Nishinoya were making a point of bothering the new member while everyone else had the same idea as Yamaguchi by hanging around the trio.

Out of sheer curiosity, he scootched himself closer to the group and eavesdropped on their conversation while leaving Tsuki to sit by himself.

He heard Hinata first. “So, Yuki, how good are you at English?”

Yuki seemed to get lost in thought before muttering. “It used to be my best subject.” He then smiled as though pushing past something depressing. “But now that’s Japanese Literature thanks to Mr. Takeda!”

Hinata’s eyes began to shine in admiration. “You really are someone awesome, aren’t you?”

Yuki smiled and shook his head. “Not at all. It’s really easy. I can’t imagine having trouble with English.”

The room grew quiet before Sugawara tried his best to hold back laughter, only for it to come out anyways. “Wow, Yuki.” Sugawara began. “You really hit Hinata’s pride there.”

He could see Yuki’s eyes grow wide and a blush form on his face. Meanwhile, one glance to Hinata could see him slowly eroding away. To which Yuki started to panic. “Ah - no - I mean - everyone has a subject they’re good at! I’m not that good at math. The highest I’ve ever gotten on a math grade was um - I think a 90 but my average is 82!”

Now it was Daichi’s turn to laugh. In fact, once the captain started, it was like an infectious disease that left the whole gym in a fit of it. Except for Tsukishima. He just sat silently and drank his water without sparing a glance their way. Yamaguchi watched Tsuki curiously before turning back to the group. Yuki’s blush darkened as he looked around to everyone laughing. Sugawara smiled.

“Don’t worry about it, Yuki. We’re not laughing at you, honest. We’re laughing at Hinata.”

Daichi continued Sugawara’s sentiment. “We’re also just surprised that you would think 82 isn’t that good when these two knuckleheads get excited at getting 50s on their tests.”

“Hey I’m good at math, too!” Hinata interjected.

“So am I!” Kageyama added.

Sugawara simply grinned at the two of them. “Sure, but you’re not good at every subject like Yuki is, are you?”

Yuki looked down. It didn’t seem to be an embarrassment thing this time. No, this time it seemed to be a more melancholy and far off look. Why would that upset him, though? Was he embarrassed by his good standing? Yamaguchi was sure anyone in his position would be excited about being one of the smartest people on the team. (Alright so he doubted that Yuki could surpass Tsukishima in that regard but it wasn’t impossible. Even he had to admit that much).

Tsukishima eventually stood up in silence and went back to practice in silence. Everyone watched him for a few seconds before turning back to Yuki, except for Yamaguchi.

No, Yamaguchi watched his friend with piqued interest. After a second debating his next move, Yamaguchi stood up and followed Tsukishima. “Hey, Tsuki…” he began, hoping to get his attention without fighting for it.

Which he succeeded at. Tsukishima turned towards him. “Hm?” It was his usual typically unreadable expression, but Yamaguchi could read it. He smiled.

“You think he's interesting, don't you? Worried he'll steal your spot as the smartest on the team?”

Tsukishima smiled, a glare on his glasses covering his eyes. “Of course she's interesting. It's not everyday you find a female on the boys volleyball team.”

Yamaguchi’s smile dropped at that. “Come on, Tsuki… is that really necessary? He's part of the team now.”

“And they're a girl. Somehow I even doubt Yuki is their real name.”

Yamaguchi was really starting to get pissed off but there was nothing to be done about it. For now at least. So he sighed and let it go.

Except not.

“What makes you so sure of that?”

What Tsukishima said next completely shocked Yamaguchi. He stood with wide eyes staring at his friend for a few seconds before turning his head towards Yuki.

Suddenly his world stopped and he had no idea which way was up and which way was down. Truly, nothing made sense anymore.

~!~

Ennoshita smiled. It was an awkward smile, though. He really wasn’t sure what to think of all this mess. Yamaguchi kept looking to Yuki with wide and curious eyes the rest of practice as if the new kid were some sort of alien and it started after Tsukishima had whispered something to him. Ennoshita would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious as well. It wasn’t like Daichi would have out-right rejected Yuki joining the club, but the fact that his possible say in the matter was overruled by Mr. Takeda without even being given that chance, well, it didn’t sit well with Ennoshita.

Daichi seemed fine with it. He was smiling like always and had even helped Yuki with his spikes. So, for as long as Daichi went with it, Ennoshita would, too.

At the moment, the team was walking down to Coach Ukai’s families store for the late night pork-buns they always got after practice and while the rest of the team interrogated Yuki, Ennoshita watched silently.

Nishinoya started the game of 20 questions. “So, what made you transfer here, anyways? Did your parents move for work?”

“Not exactly.” Yuki replied. “I live by myself now that I’m going here.”

For the first few seconds after Yuki answered, there was silence. Most everyone stayed that way, including Ennoshita, who just watched with curiosity, but Nishinoya, Tanaka and Hinata yelled a loud “WHAT?!” that echoed through the street.

“You're on your own? Just so you could go to school here?” Nishinoya finally said.

Yuki seemed to tense. He didn’t seem to like the situation he found himself in. If need be, Ennoshita was sure Daichi would intervene but if not, he would do it himself. “My old school knew me too well so I couldn't join the team I wanted to. And my grades were good enough for me to go anywhere. Besides…” Yuki stared at his food in his hand and frowned. “It’s the only way I can be myself without my dad telling me off.”

Ennoshita wasn't sure about that last part, but he smiled and decided to add his own two-cents to the conversation. “You should let us come by your place and see what's up sometime. Do you have a job?”

Yuki nodded. “Y-yeah but I don't really want to get into what I do.”

Tanaka let out a dramatic sigh. “Too bad. Would have been funny to find out you worked undercover at a maid cafe as a boy in a dress.” He smirked and raised his hands to his head to signify animal ears. “Imagining you with little cat ears serving cakes to unsuspecting guys who believe wholeheartedly that not only are you a girl, but that you're madly in love with them, is fun.”

Yuki's blush was actually kind of cute. Not Kiyoko or Yachi cute, but that little boy cute. The kind of cute Ennoshita could get away with thinking of Yuki out loud (if he wanted to) since he was his junior. In fact…

“You're pretty cute, Yuki.” The blush on Yuki’s face darkened and he began stuttering.

Sugawara laughed. “Come on, Ennoshita, Tanaka, let’s not torture him too much.”

As the rest of the group began continuing down the road, with Sugawara and Daichi dragging Nishinoya and Tanaka away from a traumatized Yuki, Ennoshita was left alone with the new member.

When Yuki looked over at him nervously, Ennoshita felt bad. He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry. It just sort of came out. I tend to forget myself after a long night of practice.”

Yuki seemed to relax and smiled. “It’s okay. You’d be surprised how often I get that.”

He really was sure he wouldn’t be, but Ennoshita decided to let Yuki have that.

For now, the team seemed to have accepted him and even if he wouldn’t be playing this year, Ennoshita saw nothing wrong with training the first year for the future of the team.


End file.
